The present invention relates to electronic parking meters and other parking devices, and to securing them from vandalism and theft.
Background: Security from Vandals in Parking Devices
Parking devices generally receive payment (e.g., coins, tokens, or more recently, electronic payment cards) and, in response, indicate the length of time a vehicle is allowed to remain in a given parking space. There are generally two types of parking devices: parking meters and central parking collectors.
Parking meters, as the terminology is used in this application, are designed to be placed adjacent to one or more parking spaces and will only accommodate a small number of vehicles. Parking meters can be placed adjacent to each parking space, shared between two adjacent parking spaces, or, where two rows of parked cars face each other, one meter may serve a maximum of four vehicles.
Central parking collectors, on the other hand, are designed for situations where one central location may serve a larger number of parking spaces, such as a single machine which handles all the cars in a large lot.
While these two types of systems differ in many ways (e.g., parking meters are generally battery- or solar-powered, while central parking collectors may have an external power supply), they both share the need to provide a secure area for the collection of money, and to allow only authorized personnel to remove the money.
Although the use of electronics in parking devices has reduced the need for cash handling by allowing electronic payments, many parking devices still accept cash, so the threat from vandals is a real issue in the design of these products. Meters are designed to withstand battering and prying, but previously thieves could drill out the lock on the vault, thus gaining access to the stored cash. With this in mind, manufacturers have been forced to utilize better, more expensive, locks than would otherwise be used.
One lock, produced by Medeco, is an electro-mechanical lock, controlled by its own separate electronic circuit and therefore openable only by, e.g. a key in combination with an electronic component, such as a hand-held computer which communicates with the electronics.
Background: Security from Employee Theft in Parking Devices
In addition to protecting a meter from vandals, various methods have been employed in the past to protect against employee theft when coins are collected from the meters. The meters are generally emptied by an employee who goes from meter to meter opening them and emptying out any collected coins. With a large number of small coins providing an easily concealable target, and with generally no other persons to monitor the honesty of the collector, many municipalities face the problem of suspecting that large amounts of their revenue from parking meters are being stolen, but not having the means to prove that assertion.
Electronic Parking Device Auditing/Vault Door Locking System
The present application discloses the use of an electro-mechanical lock combination on the parking device vault door. This involves the use of a key-controlled lock used in conjunction with an electrically-controlled lock which interfaces with the electronic circuitry of the parking meter itself.
This application further discloses two levels of security. The device used to control the electrically-controlled lock can be programmed to automatically download the activity of the meter, including the amount of cash collected, at the same time the coins are removed. This provides an audit trail which can be used to detect theft of coins by the personnel who collect from the meters. A lower level of security does not tie an electronic audit to the opening of the vault.
The disclosed innovations, in various embodiments, provide one or more of the following advantages:
increased security from vandals removing cash in meter;
increased detection of employee theft;
two devices are necessary for opening meter, making the loss or theft of one device less critical to preserving integrity;
mechanical portion of locks can be less expensive;
drilling out lock doesn""t open vault;
no additional internal circuitry necessary to control lock;
no additional electronics necessary to activate lock;
operating costs are lower;
production costs are lower.